Inertial Fusion Energy Public-Private Partnerships Request for Information Introduction Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) is one of the principal approaches being explored around the world for large-scale fusion power generation and has the potential to leverage substantial US government investment and capabilities in related programs at the DOE’s National Laboratories and partner institutions. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are thus expected to play a critical role in IFE Research, Development and Demonstration (RD&D) and the potential commercialization of IFE. Although prior IFE-related science and technology have been nearly all government sponsored, significant private investments into IFE startups have commenced over the last several years and could grow, following the trend of escalating private investments in magnetic and magneto-inertial fusion energy that are now collectively in the multibillion-dollar scale over a number of years. To facilitate PPPs for accelerating the development of IFE and solidifying US leadership in this critical energy technology of the future, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), as part of an informal “Collaboratory” of organizations and partners funded by the Department of Energy (currently including Los Alamos National Lab (LANL), Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) at the University of Rochester, Sandia National Lab (SNL), General Atomics (GA), and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), with the intent to extend to other DOE funded institutions as appropriate), is releasing this request for information (RFI) for private-sector companies seeking to explore partnerships in IFE RD&D. This RFI is being issued to assess private industry interest in accessing fusion-relevant capabilities, expertise and intellectual property available within this Collaboratory of DOE-funded institutions. These PPPs could be fully private sector funded, fully public sector funded through traditional government R&D programs, or jointly funded through a combination of public and private sector funds, such as through potential government sponsored milestone programs with cost share. This RFI provides information on capabilities the Collaboratory members aim to make available for partnerships, as well as the criteria for partnership selection. The intent of the RFI is to solicit private sector responses to help inform industry day and follow-on events where public and private sector members can meet to further the development of potential work packages and statement of works (SOWs) for rapid contractual mechanisms such as expedited Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs). Background Recent scientific and technical advances, including the demonstration of fusion implosion experiments at the threshold of ignition at the National Ignition Facility have increased confidence that a burning plasma with net energy gain is possible. While the main approach pursued by the US Fusion Energy Science program has been Magnetic Fusion Energy (MFE), another promising gapproach is Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE), relying on lasers or other drivers to ablatively compress a fuel capsule or pulsed-power to magnetically compress similar volumes. IFE has been pursued largely as a spin-off of the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) program. To that end, there is sign]ificant expertise and capabilities residing at the three NNSA national labs and other DOE-funded institutions involved in ICF and High Energy Density Science (HEDS) research over the past few decades that can be brought to bear to accelerate IFE RD&D for the US. The members of the Collaboratory are potentially interested in conducting collaborative research and development in the areas of: fusion system design and integration, high gain target design (modeling and simulations), fuel target fabrication, materials for the fusion chamber; DT fuel cycle, drivers (e.g. lasers, pulsed power), diagnostics, and enabling technologies such as additive manufacturing, machine learning, and design optimization; and processes and applications. Capabilities that may be made available may include data sets, access to computing or experimental capabilities, and staff. Of particular interest is the joint development of pre-competitive technologies. The areas of interest were selected based on the needs, capabilities and ongoing work at the Collaboratory institutions, as well as what is perceived to have the greatest mutual benefit to industry. Detailed information about these areas of interest and potential projects from each of the members and the ongoing work in ICF can be found at the Collaboratory’s industry day website: https://events.bizzabo.com/RFI-IFE/home Requested Information Please complete the information requested below about your company and the nature of the collaboration you are interested in pursuing. Responses to this RFI will be reviewed by the full set of institutions in the Collaboratory for the purpose of selecting potential partners for follow-on discussions, including at planned industry day events on Oct 27th (hosted virtually) and Nov 10th (hosted at LLNL) where capabilities and projects of highest mutual interest will be discussed and individual follow-on meetings between Collaboratory institutions and companies will occur to discuss the details of potential collaboration agreements. Details of the industry days will be distributed further via email and documented on the website above. Selection for partnership will be based on mutual benefit and compatibility of objectives in light of the partnership selection criteria listed below and each institution’s offered capabilities and R&D areas of interest: Mutual benefit to Collaboratory institution and partner Compatibility between Collaboratory institution and partner objectives Complementarity of strengths of Collaboratory institution and partner organization Availability of resources to support the collaboration Contribution of partner organization to the R&D effort Compatibility with other Collaboratory institution collaborations COMPANY INFORMATION AND INTEREST IN INDUSTRY DAY Company Name: Company Description: Location of U.S. Headquarters: Is your company foreign (non-U.S.) owned or controlled? Yes No Are you interested in attending a virtual industry day on Oct. 27th where capabilities and projects of interests from the Collaboratory are reviewed and discussed? Yes No (If Yes, please register here: https://cvent.me/lEePVm.) Are you interested in presenting a short overview of your company and potential collaborations of interest in the virtual industry day on Oct. 27th? Yes No If invited, would you be available and interested in attending a follow-on, in-person industry day on Nov. 10th hosted at LLNL for further working discussions between you and Collaboratory members? Yes No Primary Company Contact: Name: Company/Division: Title: Address: Phone number: Email address: INFORMATION ABOUT POTENTIAL R&D COLLABORATION Below are a set of questions that will help us determine the nature of the collaborations you hope to achieve. The answers are non-binding, and expected to be at a summary level (~1 page total). Please provide enough detail for the members of the IFE Collaboratory to determine if the partnership might be mutually beneficial to given parties and to determine appropriate follow-on discussions. Your responses must be provided on a non-confidential basis and the IFE Collaboratory will be under no restrictions with respect to any information that you disclose. Please do not disclose any proprietary information about your company or its products, processes or plans. If further discussions necessitate confidential discussions, a nondisclosure agreement will be put into place. Vision Briefly describe your vision for the proposed collaboration. Include in the description the technical challenge you propose to address, what advancements you hope to achieve, the potential benefits to your company and to the Collaboratory institution(s) you wish to partner with, and the resources you expect to bring to the collaboration. Collaboratory Institutions Resources Describe your resource expectations from the Collaboratory institution(s). For example, would you like to have your employee(s) present and doing collaborative work at a Collaboratory institution? What are your expectations of work to be performed by the Collaboratory institutions’ technical staff as part of this collaboration? What experimental or computational capabilities will be needed? Proprietary Work The Collaboratory institutions anticipate working with partners who desire to keep their proprietary work secure, and also with those who are open to sharing what they are doing with others. For planning and compatibility purposes, please indicate your expectations regarding proprietary work performed in partnership with the Collaboratory. Dates and notification The Collaboratory hopes to complete the process so collaborations can begin early Spring 2023. Please email any questions and your RFI response in PDF or Word document format to:
[email protected], or submit a response via the Collaboratory industry day website: https://events.bizzabo.com/RFI-IFE/home RFI Responses will be accepted until October 14th, and registration for the virtual industry day on October 27th will be accepted up to the day before the event. It is recognized that the RFI response might be further informed by the virtual industry day and an opportunity will be provided for such updates. Invitations to the follow-on, in-person industry day on Nov. 10th hosted at LLNL will be sent upon review of a company’s RFI response.